I found it while doing research for the current Daring Cook's Challenge and I must explain my envy. Lori, of Lori's Lipsmaking Goodness, hosted this month's challenge and she selected Dolmas, or stuffed grape leaves, as the dish she wanted us to make. Though she gave us two wonderful recipes, which can be found here, she also gave the nod for us to do our own thing if we wished. Her only real requirement was that we roll a leaf around a filling, and that was fine by me. As a matter of fact, that's my kind of challenge. I made the meat-filled version of the rolls for my entry and thought the sauce was spectacular. I'm a big fan of tamarind and it really appealed to me. I love Dolmas, but mine are a visual disaster, more appalling than appealing, and decidedly unappetizing. As luck would have it, the batch I made for the challenge looked especially bad and my photo, as you can see, would do nothing to improve my reputation as a photographer, much less entice guests to my table.

While searching for ways to visually save and plate my Dolmas I came across this feature at Budget Bytes. Beth's recipe was great, but her photos are what really caught my eye. They were stunning and her Dolmas really looked appealing. It was too late to salvage the ones I'd made, but I finally found a way to make the next batch look pretty. I suspect our guests will be seeing Dolmas in their futures. I really learned something from this challenge. Thank you, Lori. Thank you, Beth.

46 comments
:

Mary- THe first photo is stunning. I wish we could trouble shoot and pinpoint why some peoples stuffed grape leave blew out or fell apart. If that had happened to me after I told Lisa what I was doing for the challenge I think I would have sobbed.

I am glad you remain intersted in trying again. I look forward to that adventure.

I have always wonder what is the exact taste of the cooked leaves! I saw some of them making these last year. Thank you again for sharing such interesting meal. Hope you're enjoying your day.Cheers, Kristy

You are impressive! I love Dolmas, but I've never tried making them at home. I now feel inspired...especially after thinking about that yummy meat filling and sauce. Thank you for sharing...I'm sure mine will look far less appetizing than even yours did! (but they sure will taste good)

That's my type of food! I absolutely love them and it's really the most delicious Turkish dish for me. Here they call them sarmas ( as sarmak means roll in Turkish, dolmas they call stuffed peppers, eggplants or zucchinis as dolmak means stuff).

On the rare occasion we get to a greek restaurant, I always order these and love them. On occasion I've said I'd like to make them, but never had the nerve - you may have inspired me as I think yours look pretty darned good.

That was a great idea to add the cucumber... dolmas are ugly ducklings on their own, aren't they? I always have so much trouble making brown lumps (or green lumps) look appetizing. Usually I opt for a dish to make it less blah... as I told Sarah at All our fingers, I made these once with my own grape leaves and they were awful... how did these taste??? That yogurt would make them so nummy, I think.

I love dolmades. My yiayia (grandmother in Greek) made the best, and we ate them nice a piping hot w/ an avgolemono sauce on top. Basically the soup w/out the rice and chicken chunks in it. It was one of my favs that she made, along with pasticio (Greek lasagna). When she babysat us, those were always really awesome treats!

According to my Lebanese brother-in-law (who is an outstanding cook and doctor (when he's not cooking), one needs a dolmas "wrapper". Does he mean a contraption or an assistant? I must remember to ask. And, I'd sit down to your dish any day.

In my young adult years, I had the most amazing opportunity to enjoy dinner often with an Iranian family. Dolmas were a major highlight and they were amazing. I have such a fond food memories of this experience-seeing your post brought me back.

Site Meter

Privacy Policy

This blog does not share personal information with third-parties nor does it store information about your visit for use other than to analyze content performance through the use of cookies, which you can turn off at anytime by modifying your Internet browser's settings. Third party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on a a users prior visits to this website. Google's use of the DoubleClick cookie enables it and its partners to serve ads. This blog is not responsible for the republishing of the content found here on other Web sites or media without the owners permission. This privacy policy is subject to change without notice